All the GC teams are bunching up near the front protecting certain positions on the road. UAE Team Emirates go left. Ineos Grenadiers are over on the right.

Tim Declercq puts Fabien Grellier out of his misery and lifts the tempo enough to drag the rest of the peloton across the small gap.

This is very much where the fun begins mind.

Fabien Grellier's solo effort is nearing an end the peloton have reeled him in to around five seconds.

Mark Cavendish will be among seven or eight prime candidates to take this stage.

Although Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), will be regarded by many as the man to beat later.

Speaking a little earlier there was a little bit of expectation management from the Belgian when talking about his physical condition, who said, "Not so fresh legs anymore, even though we are only two stages in.

"I already have some tiredness in the body. I hope we have a nice sprint. We'll try to get a stage win today, but I think a lot of sprinters are aiming for it today. So it will be tense and nervous, but we'll hope to be up there."

A little warning from the UAE Emirates Team car on the radio about winds coming in with a little more force than anticipated earlier.

I could think of worse places to watch the world/Tour de France go by preferably with a nice glass of red.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Fabien Grellier is making his way ably up the Cote de Sommariva Perno, another category four climb that will cause very little stress to the peloton, some 50 seconds back.

Now then a quick check of the weather forecast is showing sunshine, rain showers and light winds in Turin.

What will that mean, what could be a tense and nervy final 10km heading towards the line.

Fabien Grellier extends his advantage to 48 seconds. It is his first Tour since 2020 where he held the polka dot jersey after the first day.

Image source, Getty Images

The Cavendish/Morkov axis is of course tried and tested.

The 39-year-old Dane is regarded as the best lead out man in the business and helped Cavendish to become the first British rider to win the Milano-Torino in 2022.

It ensured the Manxman became the oldest winner of the oldest race on the international calendar, first held in 1876.

Morkov, was also the man given the responsibility to pilot Cavendish at the 2021 Tour de France, where he won four stages.

Another former leadout of Cavendish’s, Mark Renshaw, is also now the sporting director at Astana as the Kazakh team do everything they can to fulfil one big aim.

Fabien Grellier decides to stretch his legs and is off up the road. The French rider has absolutely zero chance of striking for home from here even if he has eked out 30 seconds.

Still it is a valuable chance for some TV coverage for the French team and its sponsors.

Image source, Getty Images

Mark Cavendish may have struggled on a brutal opening stage but he looked fine on Sunday and will be eyeing a historic 35th stage win at the finish in Turin today.

Should he pull it off of course he will eclipse the legendary Eddy Merckx to become the Tour de France's greatest ever stage winner.

“I'm a tired but I think everyone is. A lot of the talk is that a lot of people are cooked, the combination of the heat and terrain has taken a lot out of people so everyone is in the same boat," Cavendish said at the start.

"You'd like to sprint on fresher legs. We've got to get through 230km and we were up at 06.30 this morning because we had 180km in the bus [to get to the start]. It's not something I'm used to in 15 Tour de France's, doing that in the first week but everyone is in the same boat so we get on with it.

"Everything comes around nine kilometres before with the legs and positions. You need to be at the front at the last corner but my six-year-old could tell you that. Then it’s a 700m straight, I ideally like a little bit longer but I have the best guy in the world in Michael Morkov, who knows exactly what he is doing and I’ve got Cees Bol to lead us through the corners before that. I am very lucky to have the best group of guys for this finale and I will put my trust in them and hopefully we can deliver."

Local favourite Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) puts in a sprint to reach the summit first on the Cote de Barbaresco beating Jonas Abrahamsen to the top.

The Italian is actually a specialist time trialist and won his only stage at a Grand Tour in the race against the clock in the final stage of the 2022 Giro d'Italia.

Mark Cavendish makes his way back into the peloton, chaperoned by Alexey Lutsenko, after a brief pit stop to have a double wheel change.

Image source, Getty Images

Not far now until we hit the second climb of the day, through the vineyards of Barbaresco.

The Langhe in northern Italy is a lovely spot and has some of the best wine in the world with Barolo, Barbera d'Alba, Nebbiolo d’Alba and Roero among those produced in these lush green rolling hills.

Image source, Getty Images

Tadej Pogacar is back in the maillot jaune after a wait of one year 11 months and 18 days, since losing it to Jonas Vingegaard at Col du Granon in 2022.

Slovenia's two-time Tour de France champion is in yellow for the 22nd time today, which equals Laurent Fignon, Joop Zoetemelk and Greg LeMond.

And barring something remarkable occurring that number should tick over to 23 tomorrow.

He is also the first rider since Cadel Evans in 2010 to be wearing the yellow jersey of the Tour (albeit the race is far from over) and the Maglia Rosa of the Giro d'Italia and is attempting to be the first man to do that double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

Mark Cavendish has just stopped off for a double wheel change.

He has got an aero water bottle and aero shoe covers and looks like he is leaving no stone unturned in his quest for victory today.

It's a pretty handy top four on GC isn't it?

Tadej Pogacar, a two-time Tour winner and Giro d’Italia winner, Remco Evenepoel, a Vuelta winner and former world champion), Jonas Vingegaard, another two-time Tour champion and Richard Carapaz, a former Giro d’Italia winner.

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 9hrs 53mins 30secs

2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick-Step Same time

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) "

4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-EasyPost "

5. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM-firmenich PostNL) +6secs

6. Maxim Van Gils (Bel/Lotto-Dstny +21secs

7. Egan Bernal (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time

8. Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain Victorious "

9. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers "

10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita/Lidl-Trek) "

Image source, ASO

A reminder of today's relatively easy stage.

Speaking a little earlier former German breakaway specialist Jen Voight, called it the easiest beginning of any stage he can remember for the last 20 years on Eurosport.

Jonas Abrahamsen took the one point available on the Cote de Tortone - Fausto Coppi and Mads Pedersen took the intermediate sprint ahead of Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen, who is probably the favourite and biggest threat to Mark Cavendish to actually win stage three.

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